As of spring 2017, students of Oswego State can take a new graduate degree, Biochemical and Health Informatics.
The degree program has received funding from the SUNY 2020 Grant and the SUNY Performance Fund Grant. The degree contains three tracks: intelligence health system, health data, and science and health information management.
Although there are three separate tracks, “[students] can tailor the tracks for what the students want to do,” the director of the program, Isabelle Bichindaritz, said. She said students can either pick one track or combine all three. It is also mainly online so students have the opportunity to make getting their degree more flexible.
The degree teaches students about data analysis, technology, business and management with the focus of improving healthcare. Bichindaritz expressed the importance and objective of the degree being to improve the outcome of healthcare and preventative care.
“The goal is to improve health through technology and information,” Bichindaritz said.
According to Bichindaritz, there are a vast number of jobs students can get with this degree. Some of these careers include a biomedical informatics scientist, health technology manager, data analyst, system analyst and possibly even a software engineer for healthcare institutions.
“I started working on [getting the degree program approved] when I arrived here in 2012,” Bichindartz said.
The program has to go through multiple levels of approval from the faculty, the priorities and planning committee, and by Oswego State President Deborah Stanley. After it is approved at Oswego State, it has to be approved by the SUNY Central. The last approval needed is by the New York State Department of Education.
Bichindaritz voiced her excitement for not only the degree program, but also for the students who wish to be in it.
“Healthcare is more and more infused in technology,” Bichindaritz said. “The advantage is that all the information is captured electronically and then it can be shared. Having all of this information is better for research to be done.”
The growing world of technology opens up new career paths for people interested in that field, Bichindaritz said.